DirecTV TiVo owners to get update in early '08

Yeah, we know, it's hard to believe that DirecTV and TiVo are continuing to add features for hardware that is no longer available for purchase and that DirecTV takes every opportunity to replace with its own branded DVR. But we can only hope that this is a prelude to a new DirecTV TiVo. In the meantime current owners can expect to get a few of the great features that stand-alone TiVo owners have enjoyed for some time. A full feature list is not included in the announcement, but the few that are include: a deleted items folder, overlap protection, and DirecTV's remote booking feature -- which we assume will require a home phone line or could mean that USB Ethernet support will be added as well. So while these features are certainly not ground breaking, we're sure they'll be welcomed additions for the owners of aging DirecTiVo hardware.

[Frankenstein Black @ Jul 31st 2007 10:34PM]

"could mean that USB Ethernet support" Oh, please, PLEASE add this, Please. The phone line is, well, so 1950s and getting some of those bandwidth hogging features would be welcomed indeed. Oh dnd another thing. To DirecTV, at this point you need all the friends you can get (how's that churn?). So stop the nonsense and kiss and make up with Tivo. They could help SAVE YOUR ASS in the upcoming HD War!!

[Mike @ Jul 31st 2007 10:45PM]

solid

[rpgSE.com @ Jul 31st 2007 10:48PM]

crap!

I was looking into trading all my HD DirectTV Tivo for some Cable lovin but now I may as well hold out for a bit. I hate having a land line, I only have it for my Tivo...

Tex
www.GamerTex.com

[Charlie @ Jul 31st 2007 10:53PM]

This is surprising. I have 2 DirecTivos so I'm not complaining. But why would they keep supporting this when they are trying to get customers to switch to their in house dvr, which I hear is not bad. And why make an announcement now about an update in 2008?

[Frank @ Aug 23rd 2007 3:18AM]

You heard wrong. DirecTV's DVR is horrible. The interface is sooooo bad compared to Tivo as to be laughable. I just spent a week visiting family that have the DirecTV DVR and I can tell you that it is completely unintuitive to perform simple tasks, like canceling a "Season Pass". Note, that Season Pass is in quotes in the last sentence since that is a Tivo trademark and I'm not sure what they call it on the DirecTV DVR. Also, the unit is so slow to respond to key presses on the remote that I found myself pressing a button three times before the unit started responding. Well, of course that led to the action occurring three times. Very lame. Finally, the FF does not step backward a number of seconds based on your FF speed once you stop fast forwarding. This means that you have to rewind after you stop fast forwarding. Oh how I missed my Tivo.

[tbdean @ Jul 31st 2007 10:56PM]

rpg: you don't need the phone line. DIRECTV only uses it for anti-piracy and PPV. Of my three DIRECTiVos, one was unplugged for over two years.

[patsy @ Aug 1st 2007 1:10AM]

I've had mine unplugged for about two and a half years as well. Is there a way to remove the periodic warning that it hasn't been able to connect for x number of days? It's annoying as hell.

[David Ward @ Jul 31st 2007 11:05PM]

wish they could upgrade them to MPEG4 otherwise they'll be obsolete in many markets by 2008. I've got 2, 1 HD and 1 SD but will probably switch to the DirecTV DVR's because our Los Angeles locals are all going MPEG4, some already are.

[KrisL @ Jul 31st 2007 11:10PM]

All these features have been available for some time for those with very basic linux skills and not afraid to take the top off.

I've got two Hughes HDVR2s (standard def directivo)... I've got multi-room viewing, remote programming, everything...


http://www.linquist.net/geek/tivohack

[Don Wilson @ Jul 31st 2007 11:43PM]

The DirecTV DVR just became the best DVR on the planet with their last update. Anyone who uses this cutesy TiVo crap (I have two of them, but use my DirecTV DVR all the time) should quit immediately.

[Frank @ Aug 23rd 2007 3:21AM]

You must be joking.

[Don Wilson @ Aug 23rd 2007 3:30AM]

Of course I'm joking, clearly I can't have an opinion.

[James Rainey @ Jul 31st 2007 11:59PM]

The TIVO might look "cutesy" to some, but it's the most solid and reliable DVR ever developed. Quality and ease of use the hallmarks of these units. To see that DirecTV has agreed to provide this update gives me hope for a renewed relationship between DirecTV and TIVO.

As far as the DirecTV branded DVR.. it's a boat anchor. Unreliable no matter how many "last updates" they release. We've had two HR20-700's. Both of them, no matter how frequently they are "updated" still stutter, pop, crackle and just plain stink. We're back to using our TIVO's.

We wait for our contract to end... but if DirecTV decides to renew with TIVO, we'll stay.

[Phil @ Aug 1st 2007 12:11AM]

It's nice whenever the DirecTV Tivo gets an update. I had read somewhere not too long ago that the chance of DirecTV renewing ties with Tivo was a possibility, I hope so. I have one of the standard def DirecTV DVRs and can't stand it, thank god it's the garage unit.

Wasn't aware I could unhook the phone line from it though, that's nice to know.

[Russell Johns @ Aug 1st 2007 12:21AM]

I'm sure the folks at DirecTV had endless meetings discussing how bringing out a box without having to pay TiVo a fee for the use of their interface would make mucho bucks for DirecTV. As is usual when hubris leads, they failed to realize that their own half-baked system would only cause their subscribers to start looking elsewhere. And, believe me, a lot of people using this technology are quite capable of switching and never looking back. You need only take a look at the AVS forum to realize that.

In any event, when I see an outfit like weaKnees selling REFURBISHED HR10-250's for $1200 to $2300(!), I know it's a good box...and DirecTV should as well. Renewing their agreement with TiVo will insure that I stay a DirecTV customer. Well, that AND adding more HD channels...and NOT the off the air ones I can currently get with the HR10-250.

[suntiger @ Aug 1st 2007 12:42AM]

Its /= it's. It's = it is.

Now tell me, does "takes every opportunity to replace with it is own DVR" make sense to you? Because it doesn't to me.

You're paid to write. Learn the proper use of apostrophes, please.

[KrisL @ Aug 1st 2007 1:28PM]

patsy - yes - although it does involve hacking the machine. My hacks (detailed in my web page in my comment below) include a hack that disables the phone nag.

Look on the www.dealdatabase.com tivo forum for more info.

[charlie @ Aug 1st 2007 3:28AM]

i hope it fixes the problem with the phone line not being connected that generates a dumb message telling me about it every day, which in turn if you don't delete, they build up so many that you can't go into the mailbox to delete them, i'm sure one day my dtivo is going to expire with too many messages.

still i can tell how long to the day its been since i moved.

[Galley @ Aug 1st 2007 8:41AM]

Since it didn't support MPEG-4 I had to dump mine. I honestly don't miss it all that much.

[Jason @ Aug 1st 2007 10:06AM]

We've had 3 SD Directv Tivos, the HD Directv Tivo, and the HD Directv DRV, and the Tivos are far and away better boxes. I nearly returned the Directv DVR when I found out that despite it having dual tuners, it didn't have dual buffers like the Tivo units, so you can't switch between two buffered live tv streams like you can on a Tivo (which IMHO was one of the great benefits of having a dual-tuner unit).

Not to mention being so unintuitive that I actually had to RTFM just to figure out how to set up season passes on the Directv box. And let's not forget the undocumented default setting of only keeping up to 5 episodes of each show you set up for recurring recording. Want to delete a show? There's no delete button -- you push the 'dash' button twice. wtf?

In their recent software update Directv did at least FINALLY add smart rewind (ala Tivo's functionality) when you press play after fast-forwarding... their UI color scheme is still horrid compared to Tivos though.

[YouFaceTheTick @ Aug 1st 2007 10:10AM]

You can't keep a season of a show on the DTV boxes?! OMG! That's a key feature as we recorded and kept all of Veronica Mars Season 3 in HD on one HD Tivo box. Hell, we still haven't finished watching it.

[Jason @ Aug 1st 2007 10:32AM]

No, you can, but the default setting on the DTV HD boxes is to only keep up to 5 shows, despite the user's manual stating the unit won't delete any shows until it needs to clear up room for new recordings. I only realized this after loosing some of the last few eps of Season 10 of SG-1 before I had a chance to watch them.

You can change the setting though thankfully, but you have to drill down about 4-5 menu screens to find it and it's not obvious where to look to find it (again, part DTV's anti-intuitive UI). I never found anything about it in the user's manual and actually ended up calling DTV's tech support to get info about it.

[Jason @ Aug 1st 2007 10:34AM]

No, you can, but the default setting on the DTV HD boxes is to only keep up to 5 shows, despite the user's manual stating the unit won't delete any shows until it needs to clear up room for new recordings. I only realized this after loosing some of the last few eps of Season 10 of SG-1 before I had a chance to watch them.

You can change the setting though thankfully, but you have to drill down about 4-5 menu screens to find it and it's not obvious where to look to find it (again, part DTV's anti-intuitive UI). I never found anything about it in the user's manual and actually ended up calling DTV's tech support to get info about it.

[YouFaceTheTick @ Aug 1st 2007 10:08AM]

I've got two HD Tivos and I love 'em. One of of them I bought for $250 a few years ago and if used ones are selling for the $300-400 range, sweet. It's a solid box, for sure.

[Deezul @ Aug 1st 2007 10:30AM]

TiVos leave closed captioning up on the FF1 speed; D* DVRs do not. I'll hold on to my TiVos until the D* ones offer that. It's a great way to catch up on 4-5 episodes of a show; just read it and you finish with an hour show in 20 minutes!

[Ben @ Aug 1st 2007 11:19AM]

Nobody has mentioned the fact that when the new Satellites go up in September, all the new HD channels that they are promising will be in MPEG4 and be incompatible with the TiVo units..... thats the main debate for me!

[MisFitFlt @ Aug 6th 2007 8:07AM]

Could the upgrade in the article include adding mpeg4 support?

[poboxbrian @ Aug 1st 2007 2:13PM]

Every time this subject is barely touched upon, I like to point out that DirecTv's DVR is horrible! I love the company but their arrogance to think they could make a Tivo is beyond me. Their solution for a HD DVR has nearly pushed me to give up my 4 DirecTv-Tivos and switch to cable. That way I could buy a new HD Tivo, get two cable cards, and maintain the features I enjoy with HD. I wish more people would take every opportunity to complain about this situation, so they would have to fix it.

[MisFitFlt @ Aug 6th 2007 6:57PM]

Is anyone sure this is for the HR10-250 and not the other non-HD DirecTV Tivo boxes?

[joeblow17 @ Aug 7th 2007 2:24PM]

Best news is this article stating that there are whispers of a totaly new HD TIVO unit upcoming with the new ownership group. I will trade in my lousy HR20 in a heartbeat. I hate that I can't switch tuners like I can on my TIVO.

[joeblow17 @ Aug 7th 2007 2:33PM]

Forgot the link to another article:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070801-updates-show-more-signs-of-new-love-between-tivo-directv.html

Also HMO and TIVO to go are features I had to learn how to modify my SD TIVO's to use they should just give the features everyone else gets with a TIVO. I gotta say though I have had mine since the first HDVR2 and love that I have them networked and can transfer shows between boxes it is great!

[Sian @ Sep 14th 2007 5:52AM]

Pllleeeaase new HD-capable DirecTiVo! Make me beg to give up my hacked series-2!

[Benjamin Duranske @ Oct 16th 2007 6:42PM]

Honest to god, the only reason I am still a DTV customer is NFL Sunday Ticket. The piece of crap DVR they gave/sold me is so bad that I can barely stand using it. Sunday Ticket or not, if they don't announce that they're going to start offering TiVOs again, I'm gone after this football season.

[rgg @ Oct 22nd 2007 10:01AM]

Is there another option other than purchasing the DTV DVR when your TIVO craps out? My current unit MAY be getting ready to blow. It is "tripping" (powering up as if I have unplugged it) so far NOT during a football game (thank God).

Can I simply purchase a TIVO unit 9such as at "WeaKnees" which claims that their units work for DTV?

Thanks for any advice.

-Rich

[Benjamin Duranske @ Oct 17th 2007 1:10PM]

They work great, but the HD ones at WeaKnees cost close to a thousand dollars, whereas you can get a HD TiVO for cable for as little as $300. It's an economy of scale - once DTV quit the partnership, there's just not enough being made for them to sell cheaply. If DTV gets back into a deal with TiVO (which I keep hearing rumors they will -- and which, to be blunt, they better or they will lose my business next year) the price will be, I'd expect, around the $300-$500 point, and they'd have all sorts of programming deals, etc. like usual.